Baby boomers can cancel their moving trucks and Florida plans. Turns out Milwaukee ranks ninth for boomers thinking about retirement.

But what about the weather, you ask? Nerd Wallet, a financial literacy and consumer advocacy website, didn't consider the weather. In the list of Best Place for Baby Boomers, Pittsburgh came in at No. 1, Miami-Fort Lauderdale at No. 5 and Philadelphia at No. 10. | June 7, 2013»Read Full Article

Big families, Jim Gaffigan reflects in his new book, are like waterbed stores: They used to be everywhere, but now when you see one, it just seems weird.

But Gaffigan, a stand-up comic and a veteran of several TV sitcoms, embraces the weirdness — or tries to. Raising five children under the age of 9 in New York City? It's a perfect way to ensure that the kids meet interesting people, he writes, like their neighbor Andre, "the 6-foot bearded drag queen." Living with said children and their mother in a two-bedroom apartment? It's fine, if you ignore the fact that you're basically occupying "a non-movable clown car." | June 7, 2013»Read Full Article

According to The Wrap, actress Shannon Richardson, who has appeared in small roles on "The Walking Dead" and "The Vampire Diaries," has been arrested for allegedly sending ricin-tained letters to President Barack Obama and New York Mayer Michael Bloomberg.

According to the story, Texas actress Richardson, who is the pregnant mother of five, originally called the FBI to implicate her husband, Nathaniel Richardson, in the crimes. | June 7, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

In recounting the life and romances of aerialist Lillian Leitzel (1892-1931), one of the greatest circus performers ever, Milwaukee writer and gallery owner Dean Jensen has pulled off an amazing temporal triple play. He's told a story that's completely of its time, yet often resonates with ours, and in its tragic dimension feels as timeless as a Greek myth.

When Jensen worked at the Milwaukee Sentinel (where we were colleagues) many years ago, he was known as an authority on the circus. He even took a year's leave of absence to curate a well-received show of big-top art, "Center Ring: The Artist." | June 7, 2013»Read Full Article

Philipp Meyer begins and ends "The Son" — his monumentally ambitious epic about Texas — by invoking Gibbon's "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."

It's a brazen announcement that this multigenerational saga — stretching from the 1830s to the story of an illegal Mexican immigrant in 2012 — will be no mannerly reprise of James Michener. | June 7, 2013»Read Full Article

He interacts with all the characters, but is a cipher himself. He's counseled both Pete and Joan recently, and broke up a fight in the writers room with new partner Jim Cutler. | June 7, 2013»Read Full Blog Post

Enter your family's favorite fruit pie in a new contest at State Fair and you could win a Kenmore kitchen makeover worth $5,000, a three-day/two-night trip package for two people to the Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival in October and the chance to have your recipe featured in the Kenmore 100th Anniversary cookbook due out this fall.

That's the blue-ribbon prize for the appliance company's first-ever contest at the fair, offered to commemorate its 100th anniversary. | June 7, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(2)

A vote by the Legislature's budget-writing committee to oust a journalism center from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's campus has touched off a major spat between Milwaukee's two conservative talk-radio titans.

Charlie Sykes, whose morning show airs on WTMJ-AM (620), ripped the Republican-controlled Joint Finance Committee for its early-morning vote to evict the nonpartisan Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism from its offices at UW-Madison. Sykes called the vote "petty" and "vindictive." | June 7, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(241)

VENICE, ITALY -- In the opening scene of “Never Sorry” Alison Klayman’s wonderful 2012 documentary about Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, we find the artist’s Beijing compound overrun with cats. There are about 40 of them lounging in sunny corners and stepping on works of art.

10 a.m. Friday

Baubles, bangles and...well, you get the idea: The Bead & Button Show's Bead & Jewelry Marketplace opens to the public at the Delta Center this weekend, to fulfill all of our sparkly, shiny and crafty needs. | June 7, 2013»Read Full Article

A new restaurant is opening Saturday at 4191 N. Green Bay Road, in what long had been Lyle’s Sandwich Shop: It's the Diner, a 1950s-style diner serving diner standards and Southern dishes.

Lisa and Charleston Gray will operate the new restaurant. They bought the building in 2010 and have remodeled it themselves, expanding it from the original 16-seat counter. | June 7, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(2)

When the Eli Young Band makes a promise to 40,000-plus people, it keeps its promise.

Mike Eli, frontman for the up-and-coming country act behind the platinum singles "Crazy Girl" and "Even if it Breaks Your Heart," announced during an opening set for Kenny Chesney at Miller Park May 18 that Eli Young Band would be back in Milwaukee to headline a show at the Rave's Eagles Ballroom. Now it's official, with the Rave revealing Friday morning that the band will play the venue Nov. 15. | June 7, 2013»Read Full Article

Lakefront festivals help with that. The lakefront festival season starts today with Pridefest at Maier Festival Park. Andy Bell (ex of Erasure) and Sophie B. Hawkins are the headliners tonight. | June 7, 2013»Read Full Blog Post